Everything iOS9!

iOS9 Video Tutorials for Swift 2 and Sprite Kit

Sprite Kit is a 2d game engine for creating apps for iOS, tvOS, and Mac OS devices. Sprite Kit comes included with Xcode and since it is developed by Apple, developers can be assured that future versions of the iOS, tvOS and Mac OS support their past projects.

This course teaches Xcode development using Swift 2, Apple’s latest programming language. Swift can be used to create both iOS and tvOS Apps to sell through the App Store, or Mac OS apps to sell through the Mac App Store.

This course is taught by Justin Dike, owner and lead developer at CartoonSmart.com, creator of the Fantastic Worlds iOS Starter Kits, and author of iOS Game Programming with Xcode and Cocos2d (published by Focal Press). Justin has been programming iOS games since the release of the first iPhone and has been teaching development for just as long, covering mostly game related topics. He’s proficient with Cocos2d, Sprite Kit, Objective-C and most recently Swift.

Nine Essential Lessons, Over 7 Hours…

This series of videos will focus on iOS9-related topics, but even more specifically, Swift 2 and Sprite Kit. We’ve assembled some of the most common non-gaming topics, that our loyal game developers might want to know to enhance their game or app. As this course is right on the bleeding edge of Apple technology, we’ve tested it for both iOS and tvOS. So unless noted, these tutorials apply to tvOS as well!

There is no recommended viewing order for these topics, so buyers or subscribers can jump right into whatever topic suits your needs! Highlights include…

In-App Purchasing for Consumable and Non-Consumables

Game Center for Achievements and Leaderboards

Accessing the Camera / Camera Roll to use Photos in Games or Apps (iOS only)

Game Center – Achievements and Leaderboards

In these Swift 2 video tutorials, we will work with Game Center to post scores to a Leaderboard and note progress toward unlocking Achievements. This of course involves setting up both a Leaderboard and Achievement in iTunes Connect, then authenticating the local player, and all the code involved with posting to Game Center. As always, you’ll learn every step of the code. The finished project is SpriteKit and Swift 2 based.

In-App Purchasing for iOS or tvOS Apps

Learn how to sell Consumable and Non-Consumable Products in your iOS9 or tvOS, Swift 2-based Sprite Kit App. This is an essential course for developers that want to give away their app for free, then sell access to extra content. In most cases, this would be a Non-Consumable Product, meaning the buyer can re-access the extra content again if they ever delete, then redownload the app. You’ll also learn how to work with Consumable products, or ones that are expended over time. For example, you might sell 100 tokens to play mini-games within your app. After the user has spent their tokens, they could buy more.

Take Photos and Access the Camera Roll then Use them in a Sprite Kit Game!

Learn how program a SpriteKit and Swift 2 based app that allows user’s the option to add pictures from their camera or camera roll into the game or scene, mask the images, then adjust the layout of the picture within the mask (zoom in / out, move it, rotate, squash and stretch it). The edited masked-image can then appear in ANY other scene throughout the lifespan of the app (it’s saved as an NSUserDefault).

How to use On-Demand Resources in iOS9 or tvOS

In this video tutorial we will discuss the Swift 2 code related to loading On-Demand Resources, or simply ODR. ODR can drastically reduce the initial size of your app, and allow your users to only download what they need, when they need it. For example, you could hold off loading images / sounds for level 2 of a game if the player will still stuck on level 1.

Keyboard Input with Swift 2 for iOS and tvOS

This video tutorial will teach you how to open a view to enter keyboard input, close it and save the entered values as an NSUserDefault. Along the way you’ll also see how to include placeholder text (to easily adjust the width / height, font, and font size of the input area), include custom fonts for the input text, and test the values of the input text. For example, you could include a Parental Gate in your app that prompts parents to enter a specific value, like 12 + 3, then test to see if they typed in 15. This code has been test on both iOS and tvOS devices.

NSUserDefaults with Swift 2 (and how to save the location of nodes)

In this tutorial, we’ll look at saving various types of data to the NSUserDefaults. The NSUserDefaults is great for information that you want to exist even if the app is closed and reopened. As long as the user does not delete the app entirely, the data is still there (the data is basically like a property list that is saved at runtime). So we’ll look at saving String objects, Ints, Bools, Arrays and finally a Dictionary (where objects are moved at runtime and their location is saved for the next time the app is run).

Parsing a property list with Swift 2

In these videos you will learn how to parse a property list with Swift 2 and organize data (Strings, Numbers, Arrays or Dictionaries with native Swift types). Plists are useful for just about any iOS / tvOS app, but in this particular example, we will create hypothetical level data (an Array of Dictionaries), and discuss reloading the same GameScene class while “leveling up” each time.

NSNotifications with Swift 2

In this Swift 2 video tutorial, we will work with NSNotifications to call functions / send data between classes without breaking good MVC pattern (for example, having subviews send info to parent views). In our example, we’ll make the GameScene post a notification to the GameViewController. We’ll even pass dictionary data using the userInfo parameter.

Helper Classes with Swift 2

In this short video tutorial, we’ll look at creating static variables and functions in a Helper class with Swift 2. This Helpers class will be accessible to any other class in your app, so it’s great for reusable functions and saving certain variables. This is similar to working with Singleton classes, and for good measure, we’ll even create a Singleton class to show you the subtle differences.

Watch free previews of the courses below…

Everything iOS9!

Two affordable purchasing options…

Purchase Option 1 - Lifetime Access

Get Lifetime Access to this course for a one-time purchase price. You can download (or stream) the movie files and download any source projects.

Purchase Option 2 - Subscription Access

Both Monthly and Yearly Subscribers can stream every video tutorial on the site. Yearly subscribers get access to the latest version of every starter kit whenever they want, plus access to hundreds of dollars worth of royalty free game art (yes, it’s an amazing deal). You can cancel your Monthly or Yearly subscription anytime directly through Paypal.